DIGITAL services provider PLDT Inc. still finds its shares in Rocket Internet, a German tech company where it invested an initial amount of €333 million, as valuable and important.
Manuel V. Pangilinan, the telecommunication company’s (telco) president, said his group hopes that Rocket share prices should not tumble down again.
The company committed to accept the public-share offer of Rocket Internet for at least 6.8 million shares, or about two-thirds of its total shares in the German company.
“The value is still there so from that perspective it’s still important to us. That’s the amount of money we can still generate from the balance of one-third. So I think the bias is share price should improve in the long term,” Pangilinan said.
The Filipino telco’s 2014 investment in Rocket has seen skyrocketing highs and nosediving lows. PLDT has taken the buyback offer of Rocket for €24 apiece, a bit higher than the €21.125 per share price as of end-December.
Currently, the Filipino telco owns 6.1 percent of Rocket.
Pangilinan noted the company is not pressured to dispose of the remains of its Rocket shares.
“I think we just have to take it from there because it’s a short time window. Let’s see all the take-up would be. The plan is for the entire two-thirds will be hopefully taken up by the offer. Beyond that, I think we just have to play it by ear. There’s no pressure on the part of PLDT to dispose of the remaining third,” Pangilinan said.
Should Rocket buy back all 6.8 million shares, the Filipino telco will reduce its ownership in Rocket to merely 2 percent. This may result in PLDT’s losing its board seat in Rocket.
The final number of PLDT tendered shares accepted by Rocket will be determined after the offer period, expected to end on May 2.
Pangilinan described the investment in Rocket as something that has “gone reasonably well, despite the loss on the price.”
“But I think, given prospects that we are seeing in Rocket, I think they’re quite optimistic,” Pangilinan said.
Shares in PLDT ended Wednesday’s trading at P1,420 apiece, up by 1.07 percent or about P15.